Commenting on the company’s fiscal year 2009 results, Mr. Knauss said,
“The organization delivered strong
results in fiscal 2009. We made significant progress against our Centennial
Strategy. We drove sales growth on
core businesses…and we maintained
our all-outlet market share. We
returned to annual gross margin
expansion for the year and, despite the
challenging economic environment,
we’re continuing to invest in the long-term health of our brands.”

Clorox also confirmed its fiscal year
2010 financial outlook, with an estimation of 1-2% sales growth.

Revlon Reports 12.2%Decrease in Sales

; Even with a slew of innovative rollouts
for the summer season, the U.S. mass
color cosmetics category has slowed
down considerably due to the economy—even at the leading companies.
Revlon, Inc. posted a 12.2% drop in net
sales of $321.8 million for the second
quarter ended June 30, 2009.

The decline in net sales was driven

by lower net sales of Revlon and
Almay color cosmetics, partially offset
by higher net sales of Revlon ColorSilk
hair color, according to the company.

In the U.S., net sales in the second
quarter of 2009 slipped 14% to $186.2
million. In international operations,
net sales in the second quarter of 2009
fell 14.5% to $135.6 million.

Net sales in the first six months of
2009 decreased 7.8% to $625.1 million.
In the U.S., net sales dropped 4.2% to
$377.2 million; while in the company’s
international operations, net sales fell
12.9% to $247.9 million.

Revlon president and chief executive officer Alan T. Ennis commented,
“We continue to focus on building our
strong brands and are pleased with
the performance of our key innovative
new product launches, which we supported with appropriate levels of
advertising and promotion.

“In the second quarter of 2009,
while the mass color cosmetics category in the U.S., according to ACNielsen,
continued to grow, the rate of growth
slowed and certain retailers reduced
inventory levels versus the year-ago
period. These factors, along with the
unfavorable effect of foreign currency
fluctuations, impacted our second
quarter results,” he continued.

In May, Revlon announced a worldwide organizational restructuring,
rightsizing the organization to reflect
the more efficient workflows and
processes that have been implemented
during the past two years.

Quarterly Drop At Bare Escentuals

; For a company on the rise, even Bare
Escentuals Inc. has taken a financial
hit this year. For the three months
ended June 28, profits at the mineral
makeup giant slipped 20% to $19.8
million. Net sales dropped 4.4% to
$132.5 million.

However, compared with the prior-year period, North American retail
sales rose 5.2% in the quarter to $77.9
million, while direct-to-consumer
sales declined 19.5% to $39 million.
International sales dropped 2.7% to
$15.6 million in the quarter.

For the first six months of fiscal
2009, Bare Escentuals’ net income
declined 27.8% to $36.5 million.

A Tough Quarter for Culver

; Alberto Culver Company reported that
net sales for the third quarter
decreased 3.6% to $351.6 million. Net
sales for the nine-month period
decreased 0.8% to $1.05 billion.